'Any idea who Illians are?!'
[Nope. Nothing. I am from the Intellus continent, so I have no idea. Perhaps a small-scale criminal organisation??]
'To hire bandits and attack the Royal Annual Convoy, they might be more than that. And the leader said one of them is an official. Maybe an official in their community?!'
[Let's not derive baseless assumptions on what we have. Focus on reaching the city.]
Lee was dashing swiftly to reach the city. His agility made the wind resistance negligible. His superior endurance kept him brisk. He didn't slow down a bit until he saw the city gate in the Map. The travellers and carriages pondered as to what was the thing that just flew by them!
=====
1 P.M.
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
The very moment this notification popped up, Lee saw the walls of the city from afar. A weariness attacked his body as his speed was considerably decreased. His motion turned to that of jogging, which eventually came to a halt. While taking deep breaths rapidly, he recalled something.
'D, my affinities are enough to empower my arrow attacks. Then why do other arrows with Essence cost exist?!'
[Firing an arrow with activated affinity and firing a 'affinity arrow' are different. The affinity arrows are arrows with the affinity embedded in them. They are equivalent to an absolute grade affinity activated arrow. With your current progress, the affinity activation is merely a coating on the arrows. There is an effect, but it is relatively minimal. All you can do is continue progressing or choosing affinity arrows at the cost of Essence.]
Lee sighed deeply as he relieved his fatigue. He walked at a calm pace and reached the gate. The guards recognised and smiled at Lee as they allowed him to pass.
Heading towards the Guild through the familiar streets, Lee found himself smiling as he scanned his surroundings. His peaceful stroll directed him towards the Guild and he entered the building.
Changying was at the desk busy with finding something from the drawers. Changchang and an unfamiliar man were also helping her. An archer and a warrior stood at the desk with doubtful faces. Lee felt the upset atmosphere in the air and moved to the mission board. He skimmed through the mission while regularly glancing at the desk.
"I'm sorry, sir. I believe the Alchemy Guild has not delivered the potion. I'll notify them immediately."
Changying covered up her uneasiness with a smile. The adventurers bought her smile and asked when they should come to get the reward. Changying assured that the potion will be present by tomorrow morning.
The adventurers left with a sigh. The male helper went back to the storage room. Lee saw the distress in her face and asked-
"Got troubles?!"
Changying looked at him with a lovely smile. But his poker-face was unchanging.
*sigh*
"The thing is, there were two missions issued by the Alchemy Guild. They transported two low grade healing potions to us as the rewards. The potions were kept in the same box. As those who finished first came in, we unknowingly rewarded the whole box. Now we don't have a healing potion to reward."
Lee noticed an unspeakable gloominess around the desk. By the suggestion of D, Lee proposed a solution.
"I completed the 5 requests from the northern side and raided their camps. I did get some potions. Can you tell me how they looked like?!"
The duo was joyful as tears rolled down their cheeks. They were in hopelessness, but Lee entered like an angel of help.
"It looks pale green in color!"
Changchang replied instantly. Her excitement was over the roof.
'D, how much does a low grade healing potion cost?!'
[9 Essence points.]
'Buy it.'
Lee touched the Spatial ring and acted as if inspecting inside it. After a second of acting, Lee pulled out the low grade healing potion from his Spatial ring. The duo nearly screamed in sight of this potion.
"What I want is information in exchange for it."
Changying took the potion from Lee's hand and thanked him. Changchang asked as she witnessed this.
"What information do you want, adventurer Lee?!"
Lee slightly leaned on the desk and asked in a lower voice-
"What are Illians?!"
*ba-dum*
A heart beat was skipped as this term fell in their ears. Lee took caution not to say the term out loud as he doesn't know what effect will be caused. Changchang immediately pressed a button under the desk and a small compartment opened up on the desk. There was a silver sphere inside the chamber. Changying took it and held it in her hand. Lee touched it as she signalled to do so.
"Come to my office!"
Voice of Shi Sera was heard from it. He guessed that this sphere is a communication device. Without wasting a moment, he climbed the stairs and opened the door.
"Lee, where did you learn that term?!"
Lee was perplexed by the question. He never thought that this term is such a taboo in the city.
"You may not know, but this term is completely banned from usage in the kingdom of Venus and all cities under it."
Lee took a seat and spoke-
"I learned this term from the bandits on the northern side."
"What?!?! What else did you learn?!"
"Explain the term and I'll tell you everything."
*sigh*
Shi Sera deeply sighed as she sat on her chair.
=====
2 P.M.
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
"Illian was a gifted cultivator who lived in the capital city, about a decade ago. He was an orphan. At a very young age, he proved to be a prodigy. Everyone admired his talent, but not his ideology.
He believed that the strong must reign over the weak and the strongest only should survive. The kings never supported such a crude method of ruling.
Seeing that his dream may not be fulfilled, he approached many other cultivators. Through his words, he replaced the concepts of unity and harmony with power and strength. The converted cultivators began to go rampant through streets. Many were slain mercilessly. At a short notice, the king personally came with his army to deal with these rogues.
The streets of Venus became blood-red. Bodies of cultivators and soldiers filled the land. With an assured failure, Illian and his comrades retreated to the forest. Many cultivators followed his trail and joined his ideology. The greed to power and strength made them become monsters.
For a while, there were no conflicts. But one day, the cultivators began to storm small villages and began to strengthen their foundations, you know what I mean.
Almost all cultivators from the cities joined his force. They were in the shadows for about 3 years. I don't know why they are poking their heads out now!"
"When I interrogated a bandit-leader, he said something about an official. What are those?!" (Lee)
"About 2 years ago, our spies discovered that they are systematically growing in number and strength. The official you talked about is someone with power in the social strata. He is just a step above his fellow cultivators, that's it." (Shi Sera)
" So…..does that mean they have a flourished social system?!"
"Exactly. We don't know the stratification details, but they do have elders, masters, vice leaders and a leader."
Lee went into serious thought. He was picturising the kingdom's history as clean as a pool, and this piece of turd fell into it!
[According to the situation, it's best to te her everything.]
D sounded his suggestion and Lee followed his advice. He narrated the whole incident, about the Royal Annual Convoy and the bandits meeting with the Illians.
Shi Sera was expressionless, but her mind was in mayhem. What Lee just said casually had the power to turn the tides at a great margin. She jumped up in revelation and spoke-
"Let's go to the Army headquarters!!"
Lee nodded and followed her. They hurried to reach the Army headquarters. Lee was faster and he was the first one to reach the training grounds where Ian might be. No soldier hindered Lee as they remembered what he was capable of.
Upon seeing Lee, Ian was happy.
"About time, boy! Come, let's spar a little!!"
Ian's face changed as he saw Shi Sera rushing over. He could sense an emergency whenever he saw her in a hurry.
"Recruits, the usual!!"
Ian shouted out loud and the rookies reluctantly stood up and ran. He signalled at Lee and Shi Sera to follow him.
---------
"Problem?!"
Ian asked this only after making sure that the room is safe and secure. He closed the door behind him and triple locked it.
"Illians."
Shi Sera muttered. Ian froze up for a second, but came to reality after a moment.
"Where?!"
To this question of Ian, Shi Sera glanced at Lee. It was his cue to narrate the story.
----------
=====
3 P.M.
1620 Essence harvested.
=====
Lee had narrated the incident and Ian was pondering on it, when the notification came up. The timer threw Lee back on track.
"We have only two days time. If they show up and find that the bandits are all dead, they'll be alerted. What should we do?!"
Lee broke the ice and spoke up.
...................
==========
Name: Lee
Age: 20
Title: Grim-reaper, Soul Liberator
Fame: 1815
Essence: 24556 (3 PM)
Money: 989 Gold, 0 Silver, 31 Copper
----------
Partner: An
----------
Health: 320
Strength: 320
Vitality: 320
Agility: 320
Defense: 320
Endurance: 320
Sense: 320
Intelligence: 320
Resolve: 320
----------
Immunity:-
• Greater Poison Immunity (191/1000000)
• Medium Lightning Immunity (3217/10000)
Affinity:-
• Medium Poison Affinity (149/10000)
• Medium Lightning Affinity (781/10000)
• Lesser Fire Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Water Affinity (0/100)
• Lesser Ice Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Rock Affinity (259/10000)
• Medium Metal Affinity (259/10000)
• Lesser Sand Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Nature Affinity (259/10000)
• Lesser Air Affinity (0/100)
• Medium Sound Affinity (259/10000)
• Medium Dark Affinity (96/10000)
----------
Mastery:-
• Absolute Blade Mastery
• Absolute Nunchuck Mastery
• Medium Bow Mastery (669/10000)
----------
Cultivation: Peak stage Core Formation realm
Qi: 0/1100
Mana: 0
----------
Innate Skills:-
• View
• Foresight
• EsGen
• EsConv
• Curse Remover
----------
INVENTORY:-
QUESTS:-
MAP:-
SHOP:-
RE-MODEL:-
==========